Cutting Vinyl at Abbey Road Studios with Miles Showell

Meet Miles Showell

Award winning mastering engineer Miles Showell, one the world’s foremost specialists in half-speed mastering has a prolific 30+ years of expertise that he brought to Abbey Road when he joined us in 2013. Using a mix of both vintage analogue and digital technologies, Miles is skilled in mastering all genres, working his magic on many of the world's best-known artists including Disclosure, Iggy Azalea, Queen, Underworld, The Beatles, Dido, ZHU, The Staves, Lana Del Rey, The Rolling Stones and Gallant.

Miles is an expert in half-speed mastering which he refers to as the "holy grail of vinyl cutting". By cutting at half-speed he is able to give the cutting stylus as well as the whole system twice as long to record the mechanical groove, which hugely improves the quality. Miles has continued to push not only mastering, but the vinyl format further when he acquired his very own Neumann VMS 80 lathe, which he had extensively restored, customised and rewired with the finest cable before he would use it.

Cutting Vinyl at Abbey Road Studios with Miles Showell

Step inside Miles' mastering suite at Abbey Road to find out about the equipment he uses, the process of half-speed mastering and how a record is cut-to-vinyl at Abbey Road Studios.